Travel Blog: Exploring Allure and Labadee

Living in a suite on Royal Caribbean comes with a bunch of fringe benefits, and having more than 10 cruises gives us even more, like exclusive lounges and events. The invitation to dine with the Captain, though, was something completely unexpected. We had originally reserved at 150 Central Park, the fanciest specialty restaurant on board, for Monday evening, but it only took a second to accept when the Maitre d' called in the morning. She also changed our restaurant reservation to the only free day we had left – Saturday. We had originally thought that having to pre-reserve everything would take a lot of the spontaneity out of the cruise, but so far it hasn't really been an issue.

There isn't a lecture program other than port and shopping talks that are, of course, geared to guests who haven't been to the ports before and need some guidance on which excursions to book and which stores to shop at for the best deals. Not exactly the level of destination education we normally look for, so we're skipping those. Labadee has been expanded a lot since we were first here in 1988, but there's still only the straw market and ship-related shopping available here.

After breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, another of the Suite perks, we spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the ship and catching everybody up on the blog. Monica also started a new video/photo DVD project for this trip.

Oh, and we did find a tie for Larry!!

One of our big concerns about coming on Allure was the sheer size of the ship and the fact it carries 6,200+ guests. While many of Larry's clients had said that we would not notice the crowds, except around the Windjammer Café, which is the buffet, we were apprehensive. The old saying 'seeing is believing' holds true. Although the ship is full, we really have not noticed crowding anywhere. After wandering about the ship for a few hours, we stopped in the Boardwalk area for lunch at Rita's Cantina, where Larry posed for a picture with Monica's Margarita before we both demolished a large platter of fajitas. This vacationing really works up an appetite!!

One thing this ship has, that many ships of this type don't, is a walking/running track on Deck 5 that goes completely around the ship. Feeling a bit guilty about breakfast and lunch, we decided to walk some laps. To give you an idea of how BIG this ship is, on Crystal Serenity a mile is almost four full laps of the Promenade Deck, on this ship a mile is 2.4 laps! We did five laps, or just over two miles, in about 30 minutes, after which it was time to get ready for dinner.

The Crown Loft Suites are located on the top-most deck in a self contained area that can only be accessed with your keycard if you live in the area (to keep the riff-raff and the curious out we guess!). One of the other "perks" for this area is its own lounge open for pre-dinner drinks. The lounge is hosted each evening by a different senior staffer. The first night's host was the Senior Guest Relations Officer and last night's was the Bar Manager. While both have been with RCI for years, we pre-dated both of them and they were really interested in hearing first hand about the 'old original' ships like Song of America and Song of Norway. Did make us both feel kind of old though!

The Pinnacle Lounge

Then it was time for dinner. We met the Head Waitress outside the Dining Room by 8:15 to be escorted to the Captain's Table. The Dining Room is actually three separate rooms over three decks and each has its own bar area. If you are getting the idea this ship revolves around booze, you are not too far off. The 'picture of a picture' is our table (notice Larry's nice new tie??) and it turned out to be a bit out of the ordinary.

The couple sitting beside Larry was from Texas, by way of several of the bars onboard, and left the table shortly after the picture was taken as the lady was not feeling too well. The empty chairs to the Captain's left were for the couple who never showed up (after being invited only that morning!!) and the older couple were from Florida and on their 98th cruise, half of which have been on RCI!

Although things started off rather awkwardly, Captain Zini proved to be a very personable host and a great conversationalist. Although he is in his early forties, he has been with RCI for 20 years and has been the lead Captain on at least one of the new builds of every class of ship in the fleet in that time. He has a wicked sense of humour too! What looked at the start as a very uncomfortable dinner ended up being a really nice time.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was our first port stop, Labadee, RCI's 'private beach resort' on the north coast of Haiti. RCI was the first cruise line to come up with the concept of a 'private island' when they leased 350 acres on a peninsula from Haiti in the mid-80's. While Labadee started life as a day at the beach, it has evolved over the years to the point where we are reasonably sure that 'Labadee' actually means 'place to separate tourists from their money'! When we were last here in 1991, the place consisted of two beaches, a bar and a buffet and RCI brought in all the food and drink from the ship. With the coming of Oasis in 2009 and Allure in 2010, they built an enormous pier and while they still bring in all the food and drink, there are now four beaches, a fleet of seadoos, snorkelling, scuba, parasailing and the biggest zipline in the Caribbean at over 1000 yards long!! And of course, most of it all costs extra to use.

As yet another perk, one of the beaches is reserved for Suite guests, and as Monica had a 2:00PM spa appointment, we availed ourselves of a couple of lounges and spent a few lazy hours at the beach before returning to the ship for lunch. Larry did actually go into the water, but we only have that on video. Show you later.

For the sail away at 4:30 we were invited to attend (yet another) special Suite perk, a cocktail party on the heli-deck right at the bow of the ship. All of RCI's large ships have a helicopter pad at the bow which is usually open to all guests, weather permitting. But because of the design of Oasis and Allure, the pad area is not easily accessible, so needless to say we were the envy of everyone on the Pool Deck for the sail out. We even got our picture taken with a 'local celebrity'!!

This evening we had dinner in the Samba Grill, a Brazilian Churrasco Steakhouse along the same lines as Copacabana at home, where once again we strolled in and rolled out!!

After dinner, we had a reservation to see the aqua show, Ocean Aria. Once more, we were completely amazed at what RCI has managed to do with the entertainment program. It is a non-stop acrobatic and diving show with fountains, lights, music and some spectacular sportsmanship. Two high divers actually dove from the very top of the arch structure that you can see on the aft end of the ship. The pool isn't all that wide to begin with; it must look miniscule from up there, especially on a moving ship! Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of how it looks: